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BY JOE TYRRELL
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
James Brown just wanted to be a sex machine, but a New Jersey man has made one.
Douglas Hines unveiled "the world's first sex robot" over the weekend at the annual Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. Called Roxxxy, the robot shares some features with more traditional sex toys, but goes farther.
Unlike dolls that just lie there, Roxxxy can carry on simple conversations, according to Hines' Lincoln Park company, True Companion LLC. Her linguistic skills come courtesy of a hook-up to a laptop and an internal speaker.
Touch sensors at strategic points enable the robot to respond when it is being handled. At a demonstration, the dark-haired robot said, "I love holding hands with you," when Hines touched it there. A different contact produced a franker response.
While sex dolls are a long-time staple of the adult industry, Hines' company reported that many purchasers describe them as "catatonic," unable to speak or respond – in fact, doll-like.By giving Roxxxy some vocal ability, the hope is to make the robot something a purchaser can relate to, Hines said in a press release. The device is initially programmed with subject matter, including the Manchester United Red Devils soccer team – talk about product placement.
But the machine also will be capable of synthesizing additional conversation, and will be updated with additional vocabulary downloads, according to the developer.
"Sex only goes so far – then you want to be able to talk to the person," Hines told the Associated Press at the unveiling.
That's one reason to make the first robot female. Uncommunicative male sex dolls are already gender accurate.
According to Hines, the company has brought together electrical engineers, computer science experts, artists, beauty and makeup professionals as well as robotic engineers for the project. The goal is "to provide you with your most life-like sex robot which can interact as well as 'play' with you," he said.
But enough talk: the rubberized robot is five-foot-seven, 120 pounds, "has a full C-cup and is ready for action," Hines said.
Hope as they might, fans of Battlestar Galactica's living Cylons should not, however, expect Tricia Helfer to arrive by parcel post. The current iteration of Roxxxy cannot move by itself.
According to the company, various personalities will be available, from "Wild Wendy" to "Frigid Farrah," which somehow seems an unfortunate memorial for a late Charlie's Angel. The price is expected to run between $7,000 and $9,000, with shipping to start later this year.
Hines performed research in artificial intelligence at Bell Labs, but creating a sex robot was not at the top of his list of things to do. According to a True Companion statement, he began thinking about personalized robots after a conversation with a friend, remembering a mutual acquaintance that had died.
Then Hines' friend was killed at the World Trade Center in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Hines began focusing on ways to reproduce personalities artificially. His first thought was to create a sort of home health aide to interact with the elderly. But he found the regulatory process daunting.
No worries: sex aids are less particular. But according to Hines, the goal is still to find wider uses for artificial personalities.
"The sex robot thing is marketing," he told the AP. "It's really about making a companion."
Joe Tyrrell may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
